Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
      • Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito argued abortion isn’t an economic issue. But is that true?

        Chabeli Carrazana · May 4
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • The 19th Explains: Why the nursing shortage isn’t going away anytime soon

        Mariel Padilla · September 23
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8
      • Voter ID laws stand between transgender people, women and the ballot box

        Barbara Rodriguez · October 14
      • Emily’s List expands focus on diverse candidates and voting rights ahead of midterm elections

        Errin Haines · August 30

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th News(letter)

News from reporters who represent you and your communities.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting...

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

Carolyn Maloney
Rep. Carolyn Maloney walks to the House floor on January 13. (Photo by Stefani Reynolds/Getty Images)

Election 2020

‘I felt horror, absolute horror’: Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York recalls the Capitol riot

The 19th collected first-hand accounts of January 6 from nearly two dozen women in Congress.

Mariel Padilla

General Assignment Reporter

Mariel Padilla portrait

Published

2021-03-16 13:27
1:27
March 16, 2021
pm

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

About one month after pro-Trump rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol, The 19th reached out to all 143 women in the 117th Congress to ask about their experiences on January 6. Twenty-three shared their points of view from that day. We are also publishing each lawmaker’s full account of that day. Here is what Rep. Carolyn Maloney of New York told The 19th. The transcript has been lightly edited: 

It started out as a day like any day. Because of COVID, I was there with only two staff members, including my chief of staff. I just want to put this in perspective. I live next door to the Pakistani ambassadors to the United Nations. I always want to be a good neighbor and welcome them to the country. I remember a conversation I had with one of them a couple years ago. He said, “I want to tell you what I most admire about your country.” He told me it was the peaceful transfer of power. His country had never experienced it at that time. He said he looked at the world and few countries have peaceful transfer of power, “but your country has always had it in an organized way.”

So what was most horrifying, shocking and painful to me about that day, and to this day, was that that value has been violated, and it will go down in history as one of the darkest days in American history. I think all of us have a responsibility to how we preserve it for the future.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

We were called in to certify the electoral votes. We had been asked to leave if we were not part of the proceedings to debate each of the contested electoral votes. I walked and went back to my office and turned on the television to watch the proceedings. When they started debating, I believe we had only 11 members of the Democratic Party and then members of the Republican party plus support staff and the sergeant-at-arms on the House floor. We were starting to debate Arizona and [Rep. Paul Gosar] was speaking, saying the vote was not valid. He started asking for order in the chamber.

At one point, someone approached [Speaker Nancy Pelosi], someone I didn’t recognize in her staff. They were obviously telling her she had to leave. She was shaking her head that she didn’t want to. It wasn’t alarming to me. I thought, like every day, she was just called into another meeting, possibly with [Sen. Chuck Schumer] to discuss what was happening. Then Gosar said there’s not order in the chamber.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

You have been subscribed!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

I remember thinking, “Something is wrong.”

I watched the proceedings on the television in my office. I became alarmed when a security detail surrounded Rep. Steny Hoyer, the House majority leader, and whisked him out of the room very quickly. If I remember correctly, the screen just went sort of blank at this point. I couldn’t see what was happening on the House floor, but I could see the west front of the building. I noticed a large group of people walking through an entrance that isn’t open to the public. The police officers were scarce, not like now when there’s so many National Guard members you can hardly move. There were a lot of people out on the lawn. A lot of times we gather there for speeches, but it just looked like a lot of people.

And then during the day, there were officers I could see in the back and side of the building, but we could see there was activity on the lawn in front of the Supreme Court. There were gatherings of people moving through. 

Read more recollections from the Capitol

  • ‘We had to run faster’: Rep. Kathleen Rice of New York recalls the Capitol riot
  • Two decades in the making, Rosa DeLauro’s plan to cut child poverty in half is on the brink of passing
  • ‘I’m running for my life. I cannot talk to you right now’: 23 women in Congress recall the Capitol riot

They got in a little bit after. About an hour after Nancy was whisked out of the chamber, we were contacted by someone in [Rep. Adam Schiff’s] office. The staff member said he was alone and asked if he could come to our office. He stayed with us the whole time.

I never felt fear that they were going to invade my office. I felt horror, absolute horror, at the disruption of the peaceful transfer of power and disturbed that they had succeeded in disrupting our work. Our work was to certify the Electoral College. We didn’t go back into session until 8 p.m. that night.

I kept thinking we had to continue our work. I felt very strongly that we had to complete our work. We went back into session, and the votes took place. We were there until 4 a.m. in the morning. I think that being a member of Congress is in a unique position: When you have a crisis, do something about it. As chair of the Oversight Committee, I have written several letters requesting documents to see if there are other [insurrectionists] in our ranks. 

At least 12 off-duty police officers from around the country were involved. I wrote a letter to see if police chiefs could find other people that supported the insurrection at the Capitol. We’ve asked for more documents from them. I’m very interested in the organization called Parler, which the rioters used to organize. I sent a letter yesterday about whether President Trump tried to purchase ownership of it. The language on the site was “kill people, take over the Capitol,” and it just emerged about a year ago. It’s now become a major organizing tool. I introduced a bill, specifically targeted at what happened on Jan. 6, called the Insurrection Financing Transparency Act to give the authority to law enforcement to follow the money and see who is financing the insurrection, the busses, the meetings and the platform. I’ve also written to every agency to preserve all of the documents from that day. 

My key takeaway would be when it comes to the peaceful transfer of power, we didn’t even recognize that we’ve taken for granted that we have it. It was violated. That’s really shocking. 

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Help sustain what we started

Your monthly investment is critical to our sustainability as a nonprofit newsroom.

Donate Today

Become a member

Up Next

Veronica Escobar

Election 2020

‘Where is our line of defense?’: Rep. Veronica Escobar of Texas recalls the Capitol riot

The 19th collected first-hand accounts of January 6 from nearly two dozen women in Congress.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram